The Toronto Blue Jays are back at baseball’s big dance, winning their first AL pennant in more than 30 years in a come-from-behind Game 7 win in front of a riotous home crowd. This is the first time the Jays have seen the World Series since they won back-to-back titles in 1992-1993, but they enter as underdogs to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Following an authoritative sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, Big Blue is marked at -210 on BetMGM to win their third championship in six years, with Toronto playing David to LA’s Goliath at +170.
Despite going seven games in the ALCS, the Blue Jays have only thrown 97 innings this postseason to LA’s 92, and have the only offense that can match the Dodgers punch for punch. Through 11 games, Toronto has scored 71 runs and walloped 20 homers, the most of either in the postseason.
Los Angeles steamrolled the Brewers (who had the best record and run differential in baseball during the regular season) in the NLCS, holding Milwaukee to one run in each contest of the four-game sweep, while scoring 15. The Dodgers clinched the pennant behind the best single-game performance in baseball history from Shohei Ohtani, and coast into the World Series having scored 40 runs in the postseason for a run differential of plus-16 in just 10 games over three series.
While the starters for either team are competitive matchups, the Dodgers boast a considerably stronger bullpen than Toronto. Given that the Blue Jays live and die by the long ball, they’ll need to bank a lot of runs to hold off late-game surges from LA.
In their seven wins this October, the Jays homered 18 times. In their four losses, they hit just two. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has led the assault with six bombs and 12 RBIs, which puts him as the only real challenger to Ohtani for World Series MVP at +550. The Dodgers’ do-everything superstar is the clear favorite at +165, coming off an NLCS clincher in which threw six shutout innings, struck out 10, and homered three times — one of which he hit out of Dodger Stadium.
Despite the star power and better pitching, oddsmakers aren’t predicting a cakewalk for Los Angeles. The series is currently -165 to go at least six games, likely due to the fact Toronto has home field advantage thanks to one more win in the regular season (94 vs. 93).
Game 1 will be Friday in Toronto, with two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell throwing for the Dodgers and Toronto’s starter to be named later. The Dodgers are -150 to win Game 1 while the host Blue Jays are +125.
